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The Contra Costa County Public Works Department decided to host a food and money drive to help the Food Bank kick off the summer – a time when need is high, but donated food runs low. This county department collects money for the Food Bank during the holidays but they feel it is important to collect food and money at other times of the year. Congratulations on a fantastic drive of 463 pounds of food and over $1,300 which equates to 3,010 meals!

Guest post by Child Nutrition and Outreach Manager, Robert Brown: Food Bank Farm 2 Kids sites encourage taking home produce in reusable bags. Some of the after school program sites shared their ideas for obtaining bags: Tiffany DuBose, at Lincoln Elementary retrieves bags from storefront recycle bins; The folks at Fair Oaks Elementary and Meadow Homes Elementary ask parents and teachers to donate bags; Sun Terrace buys T-Shirt bags at Smart and Final; Claudia Chan, at Wilson Elementary makes tote bags out of used T-Shirts.

Making a tote bag using old T-Shirts is a great idea! Not only is this friendly to the environment, it is a good way for students to take ownership of their bags. Erin Huffstetler, a freelance writer at About.com has given some easy-to-follow steps.

What will you need?

An old t-shirt

Thread

A needle or sewing machine

Sewing pins

Scissors

A large mixing bowl

A pen or pencil

Instructions:

Lay the t-shirt out on your work surface and smooth out any bumps or wrinkles. Then, cut off the sleeves, following the contour of the seam.

Lay a mixing bowl over the neckline of the t-shirt, and trace around it. Then, cut along the line to create the opening for your tote bag.

Sometimes I think it can be easy for us to forget how fortunate many of us are and why we need organizations like the Food Bank. This week I had the pleasure of attending a three day conference in Tucson titled Closing the Hunger Gap. The conference was made up of three parts:

1. Visiting existing programs
2. Learning and brainstorming about issues relate to hunger relief including policy change and nutrition
3. Planning actions we will take over the next year to make a change

On day one I went with a group to see a school, soup kitchen, farm and home garden.

The school was amazing! Everyday the kids are involved in the operation of the school garden and sustainability program at the school. They grow fruits and veggies, raise chicken and tilapia, compost, collect rain water and host a farmers’ market. Incredible! The outcomes are just as amazing from increased attendance and parent involvement to better understanding of math and overall academic improvement. I encourage you to check out www.goManzo.com to see all the amazing work the school and community are doing.

At the soup kitchen I was again blown away and honestly I wasn’t expecting much here. Terrible I know but I thought I’ve seen soup.kitchen and know what good works they do. What could I possible learn here? Well, this soup kitchen not only feeds people everyday (except thanksgiving and Christmas – because “everyone else wants to do that”) but every afternoon they spend working on community organizing. They are working on keeping bus fares from increasing knowing the people they serve absolutely cannot afford even a five cent increase. A crossing guard was needed so families could safely cross the street to get their food and the community organizers at Casa Maria helped make that happen. It’s amazing how a group of community members can affect so much change. I think we forget the power we have.

Next stop on our tour was the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona’s farm. Community plots are available for families and groups. The food bank also grows food for their services, but the farm is more than that. It’s a place for the neighborhood to gather and to continue a tradition of farming that has been taking place there for thousands of years. One gentleman spoke about how he brings kids on probation to the farm and what a difference that make in their lives. The host potlucks and workshops. It’s an outdoor community center for that neighborhood.

Finally we went to the home of a man who is growing food in his front yard to provide for his family. The food bank helped by providing education and starter plants. Also he sells some of the produce on consignment at the food banks farmers market.

This blog post doesn’t do justice to what I saw last month. Amazing work being done in a community that not only needed help with food but also help remembering how to be a community. They are being given space to gather and learn as well as the tools to affect lasting change in their community. I think this is something we should all think on.

Originally shared by FRAC – Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its nutrition standards for all foods sold in school outside of the federal school lunch and breakfast programs, including cafeteria “a la carte” items, vending machines, and other snack foods, and beverages. These new standards are an important step to remedy nutritional shortfalls in our nation’s children’s diets and to help address the obesity crisis.

These new nutrition standards, consistent with the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, will promote the health of all school children throughout America. “Low-income children will especially benefit from these strong standards.” said FRAC President, Jim Weill. “When peer pressure and stigma drive low-income students to purchase less healthy appealing competitive foods, instead of eating healthy school meals, they lose out nutritionally in a much bigger way than their more affluent peers, and their families lose financially,” said Weill.

The new regulations also implement the new requirement that schools make free drinking water available to children during meal times. “We were pleased to see improvements to the original proposed rules for water, including the extension of the requirement to offer free potable water to breakfast,” said Weill.

Moving forward with nutrition standards for all food sold in school and the provision of free drinking water for all students is an important step in the much-needed comprehensive overhaul of the school nutrition environment.

The Farm 2 Kids program provides children in low-income areas with 3-5 pounds of fresh produce per week. Sometimes it is the only food they have for dinner.

As part of their Fighting Hunger Together initiative, Walmart is giving out grants for the most innovative and effective programs that help alleviate child hunger. Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano is in the running to win one of 100 grants, but we need your help to win!

Here’s How it Works

April 1 through April 30, go to www.foodbankccs.org/walmart to vote for our project. You can vote once a day, so please vote as often as you can.

You do not have to “like” Walmart on Facebook to participate, but do need a Facebook account. Contact Rachel if you have more questions or need Facebook help, rbraver@foodbankccs.org or 925.677.7011.

Funding for child hunger programs is especially critical considering the need that exists. Here in Contra Costa and Solano counties, 1 in 6 children struggle with hunger. The Walmart grant would go a long way to helping ensure that all children have access to the food they need to thrive.

Fall is generally a time of great excitement for school-age kids; it means a new year with a new teacher, new friends, and new beginnings. Schools serve as so much more than a place where a child learns math or geography, but as a center and safe gathering place for the community surrounding it. For the 1 out of 4 children who struggle with hunger every day, it can also serve as a place where you can they can count on receiving the food they need to learn and thrive. The Food Bank has fostered partnerships with schools over the past five years, creating the Farm 2 Kids program that provides five pounds of fresh produce to over 9,000 children at 80 sites each week. To take these partnerships even further, the Food Bank created a School Pantry program that provides shelf-stable food to high school students in need.

The School Pantries are located on school grounds and run by a school staff member. This way food can be given out discreetly to avoid any embarrassment that many students already experience during high school years. The office manager of one high school realized a girl at school was not eating anything except for the free lunch she received at school. When she spoke with this girl, the student explained that her dad has diabetes and they spend all of their money on buying him special foods. Sometimes there is just not enough for her brothers and sisters. She is now able to pick out the foods her family can eat like brown rice, canned vegetables without salt and low-sugar cereals. This represents a need that the Food Bank would not be able to identify on their own. Through these strategic partnerships the Food Bank is able to help students of all ages in a way that makes them confident, happy and ready to learn.